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The court heard on Wednesday (September 27) how in an interview given to police on the day of the raid, Smith had claimed he did not get any sexual gratification from viewing these photographs and was not sexually attracted to children.

Jo Morris, defending Smith at his sentencing hearing, argued that he had three people under his employment that relied on him for work, and any immediate custodial sentence would leave them out of a job.

Miss Morris added: “He has children who have children themselves and no complaints have ever been made against him.

“A social worker has also not identified any harm.”

Judge Christopher Morgan, passing sentence, said: “You came to the attention of the police by use of your work computer where you downloaded and viewed indecent images of children.

“They are victims, every single one of them – you watched these children as they were being abused.

“I reject that you did not do this for sexual gratification. The extreme nature of one image may show that you have the need for this to achieve sexual gratification.

“You are a man of good character, and because of this, no one would believe you were a man viewing images of child abuse.

Judge Morgan also warned Smith that if he was convicted of a crime worthy of a custodial sentence, he will also be at risk of serving the full nine months behind bars for this crime.

Smith was served a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and will undertake a 50-day rehabilitation requirement organised by the probation service.